Whip also resists the help of attorney Hugh Lang ( Don Cheadle), a stiffly humorless man who’s obviously good at his job, as he paves the way for his client to get off if he behaves himself. When Whip learns what’s in store for him legally, he hits the bottle again just as Nicole goes on the wagon, which doesn’t stop them from having a brief liaison. Unlike him, she has nothing to show for her life, as well as no prospects unless she shapes up once and for all. VIDEO: Denzel Washington’s ‘Flight’ Trailer Hitsįrom this point on, the original screenplay by John Gatins ( Coach Carter, Dreamer, Real Steel ) closely charts the ins and outs and ups and downs of Whip’s addiction, a struggle he shares part-time with Nicole. But a tempest of trouble awaits him in the real world, as he learns what he had to already know: Toxicological tests have revealed the booze and coke in his system at the time of the crash, which could result in serious prison time. If he could stay here forever, unmolested and unnoticed, you suspect he would. The property belonged to his grandfather his father’s Cessna, in which Whip learned to fly, is still in the barn and the cabinets are full of booze, which he methodically pours out. At the same time, Whip meets red-headed Nicole ( Kelly Reilly), an addict hospitalized after an o.d., with whom he develops a certain affinity.Īnxious to avoid the lurking media, Whip slips away to his family farm to hide out. Depressed to learn that Katerina was among those killed, he’s visited by old flying buddy and now pilot’s union rep Charlie Anderson ( Bruce Greenwood), as well as by his Lebowski-world drug dealer Harling Mays ( John Goodman), whom he instructs to keep the vodka away. His daring and ingenuity having saved most of the passengers from certain death, he becomes an immediate national hero.īut this is not a role Whip is keen to embrace. For his part, Whip is hospitalized with minor injuries. Miraculously, the plane lands more or less intact, although six people die. This breath-shortening sequence is eye-poppingly realistic, with cutting Eisenstein would have admired, right down to the exquisite details of Jehovah’s witnesses scrambling to get out of the way on the ground as the plane’s wing clips the steeple of their rural church. PHOTOS: Hollywood’s 10 Highest-Grossing Actors After lowering the landing gear and dumping fuel, Whip freaks everyone out and creates total chaos onboard by inverting the plane, manually forcing it to fly upside-down to achieve some stability on the way down before righting the ship at the last minute to attempt an emergency landing in a field. Having achieved momentary calm, Whit actually falls asleep at the controls, but not for long the jet loses its hydraulics and suddenly plunges into an uncontrolled descent, its engines on fire. With his night’s companion Katerina ( Nadine Velazquez) working the passenger compartment, Whit zooms up into the clouds, shaking up the passengers and scaring the co-pilot as he rams at top speed toward a pocket of clear sky. Rain is pelting down and the sky is dark, but it’s all in a day’s work for Whip, who settles into the cockpit and greets a new co-pilot ( Brian Geraghty), while also sneaking two bottles’ worth of on-board vodka into his orange juice. The 102 passengers strap in for what could be a bumpy flight the weather looks awful. The gripping 20-minute interlude that follows has in every way been brilliantly orchestrated by Zemeckis and will mesmerize and terrify audiences in a manner that will make the film widely talked about, a must-see for many and perhaps a must-avoid for a few. PHOTOS: Fall Movie Preview 2012: Major New Releases From Spielberg, Jackson, Tarantino, the Wachowskis, Burton and More World premiering as the closing night attraction at the 50th New York Film Festival, the Paramount release will be warmly welcomed by audiences in search of thoughtful, powerful adult fare upon its Nov. After 12 years spent mucking about in the motion capture playpen, Robert Zemeckis parachutes back to where he belongs - in big-time, big-star, live-action filmmaking - with Flight. A gritty, full-bodied character study about a man whose most exceptional deed may, ironically, have resulted from his most flagrant flaw, this absorbing drama provides Denzel Washington with one of his meatiest, most complex roles, and he flies with it.
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